My First Attempts At Scrolling

[nockowt1]

5/16"x4' HRS:

1/2"x4' HRS:

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[timiacobucci]

Kevin, I'm glad to see you getting into the braced stuff. There are a bunch of things to start off with here. Firstly scrolling is usually meant as a bar with more than one bend in it, so your 1/2" bar is still not really a scroll, it's a small technical thing so it's not really a big deal, I just wouldn't really call that a scroll, just a long bar bend into a fish. Even the 5/16" is really a coil, which is in the same arena as scrolling but still technically not the same thing.

Next what kind of hrs is it, as in where did you get it from? I ask this because the hot rolled steel from lowes and home depot is most likely steelworks or similar and not real a36 grade hrs at all, it is nearly identical in strength to the crs from the same supplier. I don't know why it is that way but you really need to get stuff from a real steel supplier, just look up a local one, the prices are waaaay cheaper as well.

If you get some real hrs, be prepared to start with at least half that 4' bend or 24" at 1/2". I will guarantee you can get that bend, there is no sense in wasting steel with longer bends unless you are going to coil or scroll them and Erik wrote up a good article on the basics of that long ago. http://www.gripboard.com/index.php?showtopic=13676

As for specific tips, mainly practicing will teach you more than I can say here, but there a few things with the 5/16" coil I might try differently. First off ditch the towel unless you are starting to get into some serious pain or bruising because it mostly gets in the way and makes stabilizing the bar more difficult. Second where you were struggling to bring the legs of the bend down again pushing into your thigh after you had a single loop in it, that is the style I would stick with. Stepping on the bar won't work on bigger stuff or even tighter coils in a smaller stuff. Erik shows in his article how to cross and coil with much thicker stock that you can get your foot into, if you can't though because the loop is too small like yours was, here is what I do. I would squat down some to get a good angle between my chest and upper thigh and post the center of the loop into my hip, this secures it and keeps it from trying to flip so much. Then hold the inside leg and brace it against your chest or side to stabilize the bar further and push down and back sort of like a horseshoe bend on the opposite leg.

[nockowt1]

Thanks for the advice Tim. I got the steel from Lowe's (it is steelworks). Are you saying that steelworks hrs is harder than a36 grade hrs?

[timiacobucci]

Yes much harder, I am saying it is closer to crs. I would say around 30 percent harder perhaps. If you look at the calibration thread the steelworks 5/16" hrs came out the exact same as a bastard.

It also has allot more spring which really sucks trying to scroll it and can actually be very dangerous. Real hrs bends smoothly with little spring in wider more controllable archs. Crs and steelworks hrs bend like crap for scrolling. Cold rolling the steel work hardens it which is why it is stronger than hrs, but this is also not usually very uniform as heat treatment goes and on larger bends and scrolls it will not want to bend uniformly because of it. You will bend and one side will stay stright because it is stronger and the bend will just run out unevenly down the other leg, it doesn't sound so bad but when you are trying to do something specific it can really screw you up and it's a pain in the ass to counter act it and make it bend the way you want it to. Hrs can do the same thing but to a much lesser extent.

Edited January 3, 2009 by timiacobucci